Where Are My Keys?

Two polls bring bad news for Democrats..

67% think the Fleebaggers suck.

If the Government is shut down, more people would blame Democrats than Republicans.

A little perspective..

Regular readers know I am a fan of the Calculated Risk blog.  The guy that runs it offers perspective and insight on a variety of economic indicators, often putting them into easy to understand charts and graphs.  Form time to time, CR will take a step back from the current data, and take more of a longview.  Here's a great post on the jobs numbers, and what they mean, long term.

And we have to remember the numbers are grim:
• There are 7.7 million fewer payroll jobs now than before the recession started in December 2007.
• Almost 14 million Americans are unemployed.
• Of those unemployed, 6.2 million have been unemployed for six months or more.
• Another 8.4 million are working part time for economic reasons,
• About 4 million more have left the labor force since the start of the recession (we can see this in the dramatic drop in the labor force participation rate),
• of those who have left the labor force, about 1 million are available for work, but are discouraged and have given up.

A simple calculation: If the economy is adding 125,000 jobs per month (average over two months), it would take over 5 years to add back the 7.7 million lost payroll jobs - and that doesn't even include population growth. Grim is an understatement.

As I have been saying for quite some time, this is a long way from being over.

So it's okay for Police to disobey orders they don't like now?

Seemingly, yes.

Politics on this issue aside, does anyone on the Left have a problem with sworn officers of the law ignoring their duty?  What if officers decided to start enforcing activities they feel are illegal?  Can the cops do that now, too?

If I were Scott Walker, I would suspend the Chief of Police over this matter, and all of those involved for dereliction of duty.

I'm no lawyer..

But this certainly smacks of illegal use of funds, doesn't it?

A Wisconsin Democrat tells the Associated Press his party’s campaign committee is funding the fleeing fourteen’s sojourn in Illinois:

Four Democrats who were reached by The Associated Press said none of their daily expenses would be charged to taxpayers, and none will accept any per diem funds. [State Senator Chris] Larson did say his hotel room Monday was paid for by the State Senate Democratic Campaign. He said the group might pay for more nights depending on how long he stays.

Others have donated food, he said, but he declined to name them.

“Let’s just say the senators have friends over here who’ve been more than generous in sharing with us,” Larson said.

I would assume that the Fleebaggers in question would be required to claim any funds they receive as income on their 2011 tax returns, right?  Assuming of course, they are more honest with their returns than several high ranking employees (and appointees) in the Obama Administration.  Big assumption, no?

Also, if you are accepting payment to not do your job, doesn't that mean you have abandoned your current one?

Can't remember if I've ever seen that before..

Touched down in Vegas for a meeting, and was treated to snow on the mountains around the city.  After I checked in, ans was waiting for the elevator, I made a comment along those lines to the guy waiting with me.  He told me that he had driven in from Kingman, and that they shut the road down, there was so much snow.

 

How many cans of Lysol will be needed?

The Wisconsin capitol building will be closed down tonight at 4 pm, and reopened Monday morning.

The “occupation” of the state capitol by labor activists will soon come to an end, at least for one evening. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, state police will force protesters to leave the marble halls by 4 p.m. Sunday. The building will reopen Monday morning. “We are closing the capitol for a short period of time for public health reasons, as well as for general building maintenance,” said the capitol police chief in a statement.

For nearly two weeks, the capitol has been a poster-covered commune for graybeard professors, college students, and government workers. Many visitors have slept under the rotunda, toting sleeping bags and blankets along with anti-Walker signs. Near the stairwells, empty pizza boxes, grungy pillows, and snack boxes have piled up; hand drums and winter coats dot the ground floor.

Is that enough time to get the stink of hippie out?

I wonder if the protesters will leave quietly, or will they force the police (their Union brothers and sisters) to forcibly remove them.  Of course that begs the question, if push comes to shove, will the police do their jobs, and remove the (then) trespassers, or will they side with the other union folk?

I'm betting there will be more than a few protesters that refuse to leave.  Should make for entertaining viewing tonight.

"Is Barack Obama secretly Swiss?"

So asks Christopher Hitchens:

Let me explain what I mean. A Middle Eastern despot now knows for sure when his time in power is well and truly up. He knows it when his bankers in Zurich or Geneva cease accepting his transfers and responding to his confidential communications and instead begin the process of "freezing" his assets and disclosing their extent and their whereabouts to investigators in his long-exploited country. And, at precisely that moment, the U.S. government also announces that it no longer recognizes the said depositor as the duly constituted head of state. Occasionally, there is a little bit of "raggedness" in the coordination. CIA Director Leon Panetta testified to Congress that Hosni Mubarak would "step down" a day before he actually did so. But the whole charm of the CIA is that its intelligence-gathering is always a few beats off when compared with widespread general knowledge. Generally, though, the White House and the State Department have their timepieces and reactions set to Swiss coordinates.

This is not merely a matter of the synchronizing of announcements. The Obama administration also behaves as if the weight of the United States in world affairs is approximately the same as that of Switzerland. We await developments. We urge caution, even restraint. We hope for the formation of an international consensus. And, just as there is something despicable about the way in which Swiss bankers change horses, so there is something contemptible about the way in which Washington has been affecting—and perhaps helping to bring about—American impotence. Except that, whereas at least the Swiss have the excuse of cynicism, American policy manages to be both cynical and naive.

Read the whole thing.

Hey, remember when GM went public again?

I know, it was a long time ago, way back in mid-November of 2010.  Government Motors got relisted, and set their IPO at $33. GM had a nice few days of sales, and I blogged about both sides needing to be careful about crowing too much.  Remember, Government Motors CEO Barack Obama still owes the American Taxpayer $43 billion, and the Taxpayers still own 37% of the company.

I was wondering how the stock has been doing lately, and if the resurgence of GM is still continuing.  I checked out the closing price on Friday, and learned that GM closed at $33.25.  GM saw it's high point back on January 7, 2011, and has been trending down since then.

I wonder if those on the Left that were pointing to this as a crowning achievment of the Obama Administration are still crowing.

Pretty creative..

Year Of The Beard - Watch more Funny Videos 

 

The NBA has a problem..

Jason Whitlock has an excellent piece on a big issue in the NBA.

For close to a decade, NBA players have walked the thin line between love and hate with their customers. The players crossed it when Ron Artest and several Indiana Pacers climbed into the stands to brawl with spectators. Commissioner David Stern instituted a string of new rules — dress code, tougher restrictions prohibiting fighting, 19-year-old age requirement for the draft — to push the players back on the other side of the line.

Those Band-Aid policies are starting to break. The players, many of whom have never grasped the need to understand and satisfy their customer base, are beginning to unwittingly push back.

Soaked in the arrogance of fame, wealth, immaturity and business ignorance, the players have dramatically reshaped the league with their free-agent and impending free-agent maneuvers.

In doing so — in destroying basketball in Cleveland, Utah and Denver — LeBron, Melo, Amar’e and Deron reinforced the perception among fans that teams don’t matter.

“As a player, you have to do what’s best for you,” Wade told reporters in reaction to the Carmelo trade to New York. “You can’t think about what someone’s going to feel or think on the outside. You have to do what’s best for you, and that’s what some players are doing. I’m happy for those players that felt that they wanted to be somewhere and they got their wish.”

That pretty much sums up the mentality of the modern-day American and modern-day pro athlete. Pleasing the individual takes precedence over everything else. It doesn’t matter that the collective strength of the NBA made Wade rich. Wade and other NBA players must be concerned only with themselves. That’s the American way.

I agree with Whitlock that the problem is real, but I trace it back to the mid-80's.  The old days, all you had to say was "Lakers-Celtics", and folks tuned in.  Then the league began marketing the same game as "Larry and the Celtics take on Magic and the Lakers", and it all began to go south.  That gave way to "Kobe and Shaq face off for the first time since the trade".

Once the NBA stopped marketing teams, and began marketing players, the die was cast.

David Stern owns a big part of the blame in today's mess.